Kevin Van Dam Forums

Say you are having a bad day on the lake,how do you find the fish and how would you pick the bait?This past weekend when I was fishing a tournament I could not find the fish.I went to the places I’ve always caught them,but they were not there.We did have a front stall over us,but I fished everything.Caught only 3 dinks and one 3lb. spot on a lizard.The grass bite was not there for me,but for everybody else I guess it was.NEED HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!The lake has alot of grass and good channel ledges.I fished from mid lake to the lower end of the lake.

i have the same problem alot especially on new water but i am getting better at putting the puzzel together. if you dont know where the fish are, try to think where they SHOULD be. look at the conditions around you and try to pick a location accordingly. cover all the levels of the water. i start out with either a suspending jerk bait or a buzzbait, then to spinnerbait, to crankbait, to jig/worm on cover. i myself am a bank structure fisherman, well because i have a hard time fishing deep water. i try to cover as much water as possible and try to find where the fish are holding on the structure. some days will be tough and you cant rely on one certain thing or method so yo have to make changes according to conditions and trial and error i guess.

Well, one thing I have always been told is"dont fish in the past”. I still am bad about this but it taught me to fish the conditions at hand instead of fishing where I have had success. In this situation I would take some time out on the water and try to figure out what the other anglers where doing that made them successful. Change presentation, baits, color, or location. Good luck.

I have the same problem, what I do is slow down and pick 5 baits I have confidence in and fish them thru the same area.  I pick one bait to start with and make 15 casts retrieve the bait fast, medium and slow for 5 casts is I don’t get a bite I change baits and start over.  If I do catch a fish pay attention to the depth, cover, structure and retrieve speed then duplicate.  Hope this helps.

sure does help me out alot, thanks. my only problem is i dont have 5 different rod setups to use. i have 2 baitcasting and 1 spinning and one of the baitcasting setups needs to be updated with a better rod. ill probably get a new setup for christmas though.

q-man could’nt have said it better.  Find a bait you have confidence in and stick with it in reliable area.  If you dont have 5 set-ups, then just use what you have.

quantum-man - 30 September 2008 07:14 PM

I have the same problem, what I do is slow down and pick 5 baits I have confidence in and fish them thru the same area.  I pick one bait to start with and make 15 casts retrieve the bait fast, medium and slow for 5 casts is I don’t get a bite I change baits and start over.  If I do catch a fish pay attention to the depth, cover, structure and retrieve speed then duplicate.  Hope this helps.

I have definitely suffered from this myself. I like what quantum man says and what I would add is after going through your baits and still no fish. I would move to your next spot maybe coming back this spot later if your convinced the fish are there.

one of my other big problems is trying a bait in a different spot that didnt work in the previous spot when i know it would probably catch me some fish. what i should do is leave at least 4 baits tied on different rods, and try each bait in a different spot. basically what q man said, im just going to have to be patient.

Patience and confidence work, if you have confidence in a bait you can catch fish almost anywhere with it.  The patience comes into play fishing the bait becuase you fish it slower and try to put the puzzle together to catch more and bigger fish for that day and even hour you on the water.